What to Feed Baby Jardini?

[WOLF2013]

I got a baby jardini around 3.5''. I have him in a 29 gallon grow out tank with a albino red oscar and 2 baby tiger shovelnose. The oscar and jardini I got yesterday at the grand opening of my friend's exotic fish shop. I fed market shrimp today and of course the oscar ate. The jardini went down to a piece like he was going to eat it bumped it and then went back to the top. Please don't tell me jardinis are hard to feed or get off live. I've had silvers eat the first day I got them.
Maybe he is still new and adjusting. What other foods should I try?
Also, long term I do plan on tankmates. Mostly myleus species and catfish and the oscar. What should I do to prevent him for becoming aggressive? I would say raising him up with other fish is a good start, but what do you think?
I posted a pic of him, he is gorgeous.

 

[AnthonyFish20]

Id try freeze dried krill mine I just got ate chopped up tilapia thats what mines been eating recently mine ate pellets ate the store but still hasnt adjusted to my pellets that I feed.

 

[note2self]

Jardini can be extremely picky feeders and can be extremely hard to get off live. It just really depends on the personality of the fish. Each one is different. I've seen 30 baby Jardinis in a tank and 25 will eat frozen bloodworms and 5 of them will only eat shrimp or vice versa. It just depends on fish.

I currently have 2 Jardinis growing out in a 125 together (gave my 3rd to a friend) and they are 8" and 14" and refused to eat anything but live foods, frozen bloodworms, or beefheart. I put a scoop of fresh shrimp in there and they just let it sit. Same with pellets and tilapia or any other fish. It's my fault really so I can't really be too mad about it. I've fed them a lot of live foods, especially when they were young, and like I said, it's tough to get them off it. But it can be done!

Funny thing is I had my 14" on pellets when he was about 8" but I had to starve him for a little over a month to get him to eat them. Now I bulk them up on whatever they want to eat until they get 8" and then I starve them. I've tried feeding them shrimp stuffed with pellets, and making the shrimp seem like it was alive, and haven't had much success. Starving really is the best way to go but I recommend doing it when they are a size that it won't hurt them. Id say about 7-8".

As far as tankmates go, I've kept mine with Oscars in the past and all they did was fight. As babys and adults. I've had great success with different kinds of catfish and I'll be housing them with a pair of stingrays in a couple of weeks.

 

[Richard203]

when i got a baby jaridini i feed it frozen bloodoworm then after it got a little bigger the bloodworm is not filling for him so i tried frozen shrimp. my mistake was i was curious how how they chase for food, so i brought like 30 feeder guppy and within 1 day all gone. after that its hooked with live food. i kept feeding it feeder guppy and it got some disease or parasect which stunned his youth for 1 year. i used a lot of money to save that fish trying all different meds. you can see my post from back then asking for help. my jaridini doesnt take pellet. right now its 10 -12 inch im feeding frozen talipa and frozen shrimp with garlic source and vitachem.

 

[WOLF2013]

I am happy to report that he is doing well and is EATING! He eats raw market shrimp, earthworms, and tiliapia.